More actions
The Brotherhood of Loremasters was the preeminent school of Loremastery until its dissolution two thousand two hundred and three years after the Great Migration. For over a thousand years the Brotherhood preserved the wisdom of the Elves and the Elder Races, and, having kept safe the lore of the elders, copied it into great books and spread this lore across the length and breadth of the Kalduorian Empire. Though it once was wise, the Brotherhood was lured into evil by the second Brehedha of the House of Nauda who, having been appointed a treacherous soul by Inevitable Fate, led the Brotherhood and many once-noble kings into rebellion against Radûoskaû, Emperor of the Aztalorians. It was for this crime that the Brotherhood was destroyed and only a few of its members, whose hearts were too righteous to be tricked into a covenant with evil, were spared and permitted to found the Order of Truths.
Founding
A year after Uroúd the Beautiful's ascension as Name-King, that being the twenty-first year of the Great Migration, he gathered together the wise of the Adoun and the Anchulaín, and he instructed his fellow Men to learn at the feet of the Elves so that they would learn mastery. These men - for it was then that only men could be Loremasters - created for themselves a brotherhood, and they spread this brotherhood from the city of Madhintulan to the farthest corners of Uroúd's dominion. The Brotherhood of Lore's fortunes waxed greatly in these early years, for the Name-Kings that succeeded Uroúd were wise and understood the value of lore, and they gave the Loremasters all that they needed to prosper.
Creation of the Council of Elders
Two hundred years after the Great Migration, Name-King Dharadh-taran the Wise of the House of Dhamast-dohor created the Council of Elders to advise him. Having been taught as a Loremaster before he became Name-King, Dharadh-taran had found the wisdom of the Brotherhood to be great enough that he felt it wise to create for them a permanent fixture in the Name-King's court. Through this institution, Dharadh-taran cultivated wisdom for both himself and his heirs, and the Council of Elders had, for two hundred years, advised the Name-Kings wise courses of action.
The Council of Elders had at first concerned itself with wise matters. It advised the Name-Kings on history, religion, foreign cultures, and historical precedents. Loremasters had become the foremost masters of law, for the laws of the Kalduorians were based on that of the Anchulaín, so the Council of Elders aided the Name-Kings in both the referencing of law and the framing of new laws.
The responsibilities of the Council grew in these early years, but corruption and evil had not yet gripped the heart of the Brotherhood, and the Council of Elders was in this time considered the wisest act of Dharadh-taran.
The Golden Age
It came to be tradition that the Name-Kings would support the Brotherhood of Lore and spread it wherever the empire reached. Loremastery spread as a tradition all across the West, and was rejected only in Madokiriza and the lands of the Tallan, those being Ailt Talla, Uncyralen, Hrisatelen, Aztalor,and Verrgant. Kalduorian Loremastery spread east into Selaminæ and went further still, though in these foreign lands the traditions of the Brotherhood were transmitted incorrectly, and the Loremasters of distant kingdoms were ignorant of Elven traditions.
Name-King Inast-duor-nadhrai I of the House of Dhamast-dohor had conquered most of Selaminæ three hundred and fifty-five years after the Great Migration. He instructed that the Brotherhood establish academies there, as the Selaminæans were in that time ignorant and primitive, and he wished to uplift them into productive members of the empire. The Loremasters had two goals: the first was the spread of Elven wisdom and knowledge, which meant instructing the Selaminæans in what was at the time considered proper speech, that being the Elvish or Kalduorian language, and their second goal was the acquisition of the True Names of the populace.
It was Inast-duor-nadhrai I who used the Brotherhood as a tool to acquire True Names. He had towers built that held the records of True Names of the populace, and records of the number of the peoples of his empire. He extended the Tyranny of Names through displays of great friendship; he conquered the Selaminæan kings by deceiving them into giving him their names, and he conquered their people through the Brotherhood.
It is this time that is wisely considered the end of the Brotherhood's golden age, as it was now being bent like a reed to serve the purposes of the Name-Kings. Knowledge was now collected not for the sake of its preservation and spread, but for the purpose of power; and much knowledge was taken and made secret in order to increase the power of the Name-Kings and the Brotherhood.
The Fatuous Masters
It came to pass that Inast-duor-nadhrai set a dangerous precedent, and the Brotherhood's purpose was corrupted. Loremasters sought to increase their own power, and the power of the Council of Elders, which was now no longer a collection of the wisest of Kalduor's men, but instead a collection of fatuous masters. Loremastery became a way for commoners to ascend to the heights of power and be elevated from peasantry; for nobles, it was a path to the Name-King's court. Men became Loremasters not because they wished to understand, but because they wished for power.
Knowledge was turned to evil ends, and Loremasters became wretched and corrupt. As the wise became unwise, the Name-Kings grew more tyrannical than they had ever been; intrigues at court and civil wars in the provinces weakened the Kalduorians, and their Name-Kings killed their brothers, their fathers, their sons in order to keep power. Loremastery became synonymous with corruption, idleness, and the Tyranny of Names; Loremasters served now as repositories of the True Names of the people, not as wise mentors or councilors. The Brotherhood found itself increasingly unwelcome outside of the Empire, and it engaged in strange projects relating to languages and their inherent power.
Five hundred and eighty years after the Great Migration, the corruption of the Brotherhood was complete. Loremasters were appointed to political positions outside of the Council of Elders; those who were held in especial favor by the Name-Kings were given sinecures, such as being made Governor of Adhan drech Alcadh, and evil ruled their hearts. Loremasters gave evil advice to their charges, and many had sought to maneuver themselves into positions of mastery over their fellow Man, seeking to turn lords into puppets and forgetting their sacred oaths.
With such evil proliferating as like flies, it should then come as no surprise that the gods resolved to overthrow the Kalduorians. Man, when faced with sufficient evil, will resolve his will to oppose it, and he will be aided by his gods in doing so; some Loremasters, having no will for evil, sought ways to hide True Names, for it was in those days that the art of divination could easily reveal True Names, and so any revolt was doomed to failure and any war was won through this sorcery.
The Righteous Slaughter of the Brotherhood
Six hundred and twenty-two years after the Great Migration, certain renegade Loremasters had entered into a covenant with a number of slaves, foremost among them being Dehir the Great. They instructed these slaves to forego the use of their True Names, and had in secret burned the documents that contained them; they conspired to kill those who knew their names, and to keep this secret to the best of their ability. It was through Inevitable Fate that this endeavor succeeded; concurrent to these plots were the intrigues of Kalduorian lords, who sought to turn slaves into assassins. New ways were created to weaken the power of True Names, and secret sorceries were worked that weakened the Name Magic that had secured the empire.